THURSDAY, Oct. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Are you a bad driver? Maybe you can blame it on your genes.

In a small study, researchers found that people with a gene variation performed 20 percent worse on simulated driving tests and did as poorly a few days later. Almost one in three Americans have the variation, the team said.

"These people make more errors from the get-go, and they forget more of what they learned after time away," said Dr. Steven Cramer, neurology associate professor at the University of California at Irvine and senior author of a study published recently in the journal Cerebral Cortex, in a statement.

The study authors say the gene variation lowers available levels of a protein that boosts memory by helping brain cells talk to one another and work properly.

Earlier research has suggested people with the variation engage smaller areas of the brain when they take on tasks.

"We wanted to study motor behavior, something more complex than finger-tapping," said Stephanie McHughen, a graduate student and lead author of the study in a statement. "Driving seemed like a good choice because it has a learning curve, and it's something most people know how to do."

Twenty-nine people took a driving test on a simulator, including seven with the gene variation. They had to learn to "drive" on a track that included tough-to-navigate curves and turns. They came back four days later to retake the test.

Those with the variant did worse and failed to remember as much the second time around as the others. "Behavior derives from dozens and dozens of neurophysiologic events, so it's somewhat surprising this exercise bore fruit," Cramer said.

But don't be alarmed if you think you have this gene variation -- it has it's good side. The researcher say the gene also slows mental decline for people with conditions such as Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease or multiple sclerosis.

"It's as if nature is trying to determine the best approach," Cramer said. "If you want to learn a new skill or have had a stroke and need to regenerate brain cells, there's evidence that having the variant is not good. But if you've got a disease that affects cognitive function, there's evidence it can act in your favor. The variant brings a different balance between flexibility and stability."

More information

There's more on safe driving at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

THURSDAY, Oct. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Only one-third of adults say they are getting enough sleep every night, a new U.S. government report shows.

Some 50 million to 70 million American adults suffer from sleep and wakefulness disorders, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Not getting enough sleep has been tied to mental distress, depression, anxiety, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol and certain risk behaviors including cigarette smoking, physical inactivity and heavy drinking.

"There is a relatively small percentage of people getting what sleep experts feel is an adequate amount of rest and sleep," said Dr. Bruce Nolan, director of the sleep center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, who was not involved in the report. "That is a very important physical and mental health concern."

Getting at least seven hours of sleep results in greater alertness, better work performance and better quality of life, Nolan said. "People who get too little or too much sleep are associated with more health problems, including work problems, performance problems and productivity problems," he noted.

The report is published in the Oct. 30 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a CDC publication.

Of the U.S. adults surveyed regarding their sleep in the past month, 11.1 percent said they did not get enough sleep every day of the month.

In addition, CDC researchers found that women (12.4 percent) were more likely than men (9.9 percent) to report not getting enough sleep. There were ethnic differences, with blacks (13.3 percent) saying they got less sleep compared with all other ethnic groups.

There were also geographical differences, which ranged from a low of 7.4 percent of people in North Dakota not getting enough rest to 19.3 percent in West Virginia.

These data were collected from a survey of 403,981 adults living throughout the United States.

The main causes of sleep loss are overlapping and include lifestyle, occupation and specific sleep disorders, the report noted.

In the past, many people thought that sleep was "a waste of time," Nolan said. "It was to be avoided. And getting seven or eight hours of sleep was a sign of laziness," he said.

"That kind of thinking is outdated," he said. "We have lots of evidence that getting good quality sleep is associated with better quality of life."

People who have trouble sleeping should seek the help of a sleep specialist, Nolan said. Also, your doctor should be aware if you are having sleep problems, he said.

Ways to get better quality sleep, according to the CDC, include:

• Keep a regular sleep schedule.
• Avoid stimulating activities for two hours before bedtime.
• Avoid caffeine, nicotine and alcohol in the evening.
• Sleep in a dark, quiet, well-ventilated room.
• Avoid going to bed hungry.

In addition, sleep medications can be helpful, the CDC says.

More information

For more information on sleep, visit the U.S. National Center on Sleep Disorders Research.

TUESDAY, Oct. 27 (HealthDay News) -- An intensive telephone counseling program for people with depression offers substantial benefits at moderate cost, U.S. researchers say.

They studied 600 people who were randomly assigned to one of three types of care for their depression. One group received telephone care management, which included five outreach calls for monitoring, support, feedback and care coordination. Another group received telephone care management plus psychotherapy, which added eight sessions of structured cognitive behavioral therapy over the phone with up to four additional reinforcement calls. The third group received usual care.

The two-year study found that telephone care management alone led to an average gain of 29 depression-free days and a $676 increase in outpatient health care costs, compared with usual care. Telephone care management plus psychotherapy led to a gain of 46 depression-free days and $397 in added outpatient costs.

The study appears in the October issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

"Willingness to pay for time free of depression is a simple (albeit far from perfect) method for summarizing various economic benefits of improved depression care," wrote Dr. Gregory E. Simon and colleagues at the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle. "Our previous research suggests that primary care patients treated for depression are on average willing to pay approximately $10 (in 2000 U.S. dollars) for an additional day free of depression."

This new study found that telephone care management alone had a negative net benefit even if the cost of a depression-free day was $20. However, telephone care management plus psychotherapy delivered a positive benefit if a depression-free day was valued at $9 or more.

"The primary goal of depression treatment is to relieve suffering and improve function, not to decrease health-care costs," the researchers wrote. "We certainly do not intend to imply that depression treatment is justified only if it is either cost neutral or cost saving. Our findings do, however, offer some guidance to insurers or health-care systems considering efforts to improve care for depression."

"The balance of added benefits and added costs was more favorable for the more intensive program. Efforts to improve depression treatment in primary care should consider incorporating structured psychotherapy interventions," they concluded.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has more about depression.

MONDAY, Oct. 12 (HealthDay News) -- People with a specific genetic mutation seem to be "smarter," in the sense of being able to adapt to changing situations and continue to make correct decisions quickly, a new German study suggests.

And people graced with this genotype showed more activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, activity that is probably linked to metabolism of the brain chemical dopamine.

"Dopamine is related to reward so perhaps some individuals can make quicker decisions because they have more dopamine in the prefrontal cortex," said Paul Sanberg, a professor of neurosurgery and director of the University of South Florida Center for Aging and Brain Repair in Tampa.

The findings, reported this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, raise the hope of one day helping people with disorders such as Parkinson's disease that involve dopamine irregularities.

"Dopamine is involved heavily in diseases such as Parkinson's and schizophrenia for which we give drugs affiliated with the dopamine system," Sanberg said. "This might give us a better handle on why cognitive impairment occurs associated with Parkinson's and other diseases. It might also give us a clue as to how to increase cognitive ability in individuals that might have cognitive impairment."

For the study, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin asked 26 healthy men and women in their 20s to play a "game" in which they tried to accumulate points by choosing the most profitable among four choices. Monetary payoffs would change based on the participants' behavior, forcing them to adapt to keep up.

By adapting more easily and learning quickly from mistakes, volunteers with a version of the so-called COMT gene known as Val/Val won more points than participants with a version of the gene called Met/Met.

COMT encodes for an enzyme that breaks down dopamine and other neurotransmitters. Drugs known as COMT inhibitors are used to treat Parkinson's and other disorders.

"This is not something that's going to be a cure right now," said Gerald Frye, a neuropharmacology and neurotoxicology professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine. "It's better understanding how the brain works and how a polymorphism [like the ones studied here] could make a difference in who you are as far as how you're brain works."

The dynamics identified by the study are just one part of a larger whole, experts said.

"They're pulling out one part of the brain-mind interface," Frye explained. "Brain programs like this are like players in the orchestra. Each one has a part to play. This may mean that the Val/Val may be a more strident player in the symphony, [but] this is just one player out of the symphony."

More information

The Franklin Institute has more on the human brain  .